Cheerfully Giving

Hi all.  Have been away a bit -- first to Milwaukee, WI for Thanksgiving and then to Chicago for a day on business.  Of course, I have lots of stories from those adventures but first things first.  Since we are officially in the season of giving and receiving, I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite charities called Cheerful Givers. We parents often lament the gift-laden holidays and birthdays because we know, deep down, our kids don't need much, given their abundant lives. 

The mission of Cheerful Givers is to brighten and celebrate the lives of families in need by providing toy-filled birthday gift bags for children who are homeless or living in poverty.  The best part?  Kids can do it.  A Girl Scout Troop can do it.  A corporation can do it.  A family can do it.  You get the idea.

These pictures are actually from the 2007 National Make A Difference Day.  Three Minneapolis nonprofits got together on this day to support the mission of Cheerful Givers by assembling 546 toy-filled birthday gift bags for less fortunate children.  Mentors and mentees from the Kids ‘n Kinship program, in addition to filling the gift bags, also had an opportunity to learn more about the Cheerful Givers and Smoke Free Dakota nonprofit organizations. 


Cheerful Givers relies on donations to provide the contents of the birthday bags which are distributed to shelters and food shelves so that less fortunate parents have a way to celebrate their child’s birthday.  Marianne Richmond Studios, Inc. supports Cheerful Givers by supplying "gently used" copies of our book, Hooray for You, for some bag-filling events. 

To date, more than 230,000 children have received gift bags.  If you're interested in hosting a Birthday Bag Blitz, contact karen@cheerfulgivers.org.  Tell her "Marianne sent ya ..."  And Ho, ho, ho... MR